Beatles News

Julian Lennon doesn't do the hard sell anymore. Nearly 30 years after his brief, mini-Beatlemania-like brush with fame sparked by the release of his debut album, Valotte, the 50-year-old singer-songwriter has a new record out, Everything Changes, but he's not knocking himself out to shove it down people's throats.

"I'm at the place in my life where I don't want to kill myself doing this anymore," he says. "Been there, done that. Obviously, I do need to get the word out that there is something to see or hear, so I'm doing press. But I'm into quality not quantity."

There isn't a hint of rancor in his voice; for the first time ever, it seems, Lennon is happy with his place in the world. After a couple of enthusiastically received gallery shows, his talent as a photographer is turning into a full-fledged career

Obviously not previously owned by any Tom, Dick or Harry, this 'garage found' 1965 Austin Mini Cooper Radford was once the property of Beatles manager Brian Epstein.

The car may be the only unrestored example with Beatles connections. After Epstein’s ownership, the Mini passed on to George Harrison’s brother, Peter Harrison, who kept it until December 1971, suggesting that the Beatles probably came into contact with the car.

The Mini by Coys at their traditional Blenheim Palace sale this Saturday 29 June. It is estimated at £18,000 to £22,000. In addition, an 1994 Audi Cabriolet 2.3E once owned by Diana, Princess of Wales, will also be offered.

JOHN LENNON was obsessed with writing a song better than SIR PAUL McCARTNEY's YESTERDAY and hoped IMAGINE would finally replace THE BEATLES' hit as the world's most-loved song.

The guitarist was consumed with his desire to pen a track as good as the famous song written by his Fab Four bandmate in the mid-1960s because so many fans mistakenly believed it was composed by Lennon.

When he came up with Imagine in 1971 he was convinced he finally had a tune to outdo McCartney's masterpiece - and he pestered his DJ pal Howard Smith, demanding to know if it was better than Yesterday.

The Beatles are bringing back their second feature film, Help!, on Blu-Ray with some special outtakes, interviews and trailers, as well as a 30-minute documentary on the making of the movie. In this exclusive clip, director Richard Lester, director of photography David Watkin, hair and make-up artist Betty Glasow and costume designer Julie Harris share their memories of working on Help!and offer candid tidbits about the experience.

"We spent quite a lot of time on post-production," Lester says on achieving the vibrant color of Help! "We took two frames of every shot in the film, put them up on a light box, and played around with color filters until chose which filter we were putting in . . . we did it for every shot in the film."

The digitally restored Blu-ray version of Help! is available Tuesday on Amazon and the Beatles' catalog is available on iTunes.

In 1965, amateur photographer Marc Weinstein used a fake press pass to get police to escort him stage-side at the historic Beatles concert in Shea Stadium. Now, almost 50 years later, he has sold all 61 of the images he captured there for a whopping £30,000 (or about $45,500). The story involves a little bit of bravery, a little bit of trickery, and a lot of luck. The Beatles’ 1965 concert at Shea Stadium would go down in history as the biggest concert the band would ever play. Taking place at the height of their fame, McCartney, Lenon, Star and Harrison played for a then record-breaking crowd of over 55,000 people that day. One of those people was Marc Weinstein and his fake press pass. He tells Examiner.com,

THE first car ever bought by John Lennon sits outside his former mansion for the first time in 50 years - and now both are up for sale for a combined total of £14million.The beautiful blue Ferrari 330GT 2+2 Coupe has not touched the Tarmac at the luxury Kenwood estate since 1968 at the height of Beatlemania.

While the mock Tudor mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, was home to Lennon and his first wife Cynthia between 1964 and 1968. Less than a year after buying Kenwood, Lennon passed his driving test and didn’t have to go any further than his front door to pick his first car.

Dealers from around the country flocked to the county pad with their luxury cars in the hope of bagging a high profile client.Lennon strolled round the assortment of deluxe Aston Martins, Maseratis and Jaguars, before forking out £6,500 - around £110,000 today - for the Ferrari.

A lot of us teenage girls were a bit psycho, that way, in the psychedelic Sixties; pinning Beatles to our bedroom walls like crazed etymologists; fantasising about John / George / Paul / Ringo – take your pick – Eight Days A Week. Cynthia was married to MY John. It was MY hand he wanted to hold.

That was Yesterday. The Fab Four dropped to the bottom of my album collection and Cynthia didn’t cross my mind again for the next 40 years. And then, last week, she did.

I went to see Julian Lennon’s Beatles Memorabilia Exhibition in Gibraltar and there was his Mum, looking good (for her age), sharing intimate moments of her life with John from a TV screen. Imagine! As it turned out, not quite as I’d imagined…

Being the wife of a Beatle was not such A Taste of Honey … more of A Hard Day’s Night, as you’ll discover if you visit this extraordinarily personal exhibition and read between Cynthia’s poignant lines.

On a giant screen, John Lennon and Yoko Ono walk through a chilly Central Park, as the ex-Beatle ruminates over their just-released collaborative album Double Fantasy. "It's love and a lot of sweat and the life experience of two people," he surmises. Twelve days later, Lennon was killed and Double Fantasy transformed from a poorly received comeback into a chart-topping, hit-spawning, Grammy-winning last testament. Now, in the last gig of Ono's Meltdown festival, the album is being played live for the first time – and as a backing band and the 18-strong Sense of Sound choir take to the stage, expectation is high.

The Beatles made EMI’s Abbey Road Studios a household name after they titled their 1969 album for the facility. It was there that they recorded nearly all of their songs, beginning with their first release, 1962’s “Love Me Do.”

But as their need for studio time grew in 1967 during the making of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles occasionally found Abbey Road’s three studios booked for sessions by other EMI artists. On such occasions, they turned to the growing number of independent recording establishments sprouting up in London at the time, among them Olympic Studios.

When most of us go to garage sales, we don’t plan on picking up anything of extreme value. That definitely wasn’t the case for a lucky San Diego man, who picked up a rare Beatles interview tape at a local garage sale. The tape was said to have been recorded in 1965, before a Beatles show in San Diego.

The running time of the tape was around 29 minutes and featured all members except for George Harrison. In the interview, the Beatles touched on current events such as the recent Watts riots in LA, segregation at Beatles concerts, surfing and LSD. What a cool bunch if I may add.

The tape is currently up for sale at around $4-$4.5K. Talk about a nice chunk of change. Although it has yet to sell, memorabilia sites will likely get their hands on this before the price drops any further.